'^-"■ytl^l£^»^^'?'    •Sa*?!£„a2' 


Protestant  E-ois copal 

Churcli  in  the  U.  S.  A. 

House  of  Bif^hoTDS 


Pastoral  Letter  of  the 
Bishops  to.  the  clergy 
Laity  A.D.  1894 


594 


Ii!iil!lli!.!.; 


Pastoral  Letter 


A.  D.  1894 


\^  '■• 


'  ( 


Pastoral  Letter 


OF 


THE  BISHOPS 


TO 


THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY 


A.  D.  1894 


^i^ 


THE  undersigned  set  forth  this  Pastoral  Letter  in  accord- 
ance with  authority  committed  to  them  by  their  Brethren 
of  the  Episcopate  assembled  in  Council  in  the  City  of  New 
York  on  the  eighteenth  day  of  October,  being  the  festival 
of  St.  Luke  the  Evangelist,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-four. 

J.  Williams, 

Bishop  of  Connecticut  and  Presiding  Bishop. 

Wm.  Croswell  Doane, 

Bishop  of  A  Ibany. 

F.  D.  Huntington, 

Bishop  of  Central  New   York. 

Wm.  E.  McLaren, 

Bishop  of  Chicago. 

George  F.  Seymour, 

Bishop  of  Springfield. 

Henry  C.  Potter, 

Bishop  of  New  York. 


THE  CA8E,  LOCKWOOD  &  BRAINARD  CO., 
HARTFORD,  CONN. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


To  our  ivell-beloved  Clergy  and  Laity  : 

We,  your  Bishops,  having  been  assembled  to  take  order, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  the  extension  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  have  availed  ourselves  of  the  opportunity  to 
meet  in  Council  to  consider  our  duty  in  view  of  certain  novel- 
ties of  opmion  and  expression,  which  have  seemed  to  us  to  be 
subversive  of  the  fundamental  verities  of  Christ's  Religion.  It 
has  come  to  our  knowledge  that  the  minds  of  many  of  the 
faithful  Clergy  and  Laity  are  disturbed  and  distressed  by  these 
things;  and  we  desire  to  comfort  them  by  a  firm  assurance  that 
the  Episcopate  of  the  Church,  to  which,  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
the  deposit  of  Faith  has  been  entrusted,  is  not  unfaithful  to  that 
sacred  charge,  but  will  guard  and  keep  it  with  all  diligence,  as 
men  who  shall  hereafter  give  account  to  God.  In  the  discharge 
of  that  preeminently  sacred  obligation  of  our  ofifice,  we  find  our- 
selves constrained  to  address  you  on  two  cardinal  truths  of  our 
holy  Religion,  not  for  the  purpose  of  vindicating  them,  nor  even 
to  make  an  exhaustive  exposition  of  them;  but  simply  and 
plainly  to  set  before  you  the  truth  of  God  which  every  minister 
of  this  Church  has  pledged  himself  to  hold,  teach,  and  defend, 
and  to  hand  on  unimpaired  to  those  who  shall  come  after  us. 
It  is  a  conviction  of  solemn  duty  which  constrains  us  thus  to 
address  you  at  this  time,  and  particularly  to  state  what  the 
Church  requires  all  who  minister  in  holy  things  to  hold  and 
teach,  first,  concerning  the  Incarnation  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  secondly,  concerning  the  Holy  Scriptures,  by  sure  and  cer- 
tain warrant  of  which  the  Catholic  faith  is  proved. 


4  PASTORAL    LE'JTER. 

I.     The  Incarnation  of  our  Lord   Jesus  Christ. 

And  first,  touching  the  Incarnation,  and  the  Person  and 
Natures  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  this  Church  teaches  and  requires 
her  ministers  to  teach,  (i)  in  the  words  of  the  Creed  commonly 
called  the  Apostles'  Creed,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  "Only  Son" 
of  God  ;  in  the  words  of  the  Creed  commonly  called  the  Nicene 
Creed,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  "  Only-begotten  Son  of  God, 
begotten  of  His  Father  before  all  worlds,  God  of  God,  Light  of 
Light,  Very  God  of  Very  God,  begotten,  not  made,  being  of  one 
substance  with  the  Father";  m  the  words  of  the  proper  Preface 
for  Trmity-Sunday,  in  the  Order  for  the  Holy  Communion,  that 
"that  which  we  believe  of  the  glory  of  the  Father,  the  same  we 
believe  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  without  any  differ- 
ence or  inequality";  and  in  the  words  of  the  second  Article  of 
P^eligion,  that  "  the  Son,  which  is  the  Word  of  the  Father,  begot- 
ten from  everlasting  of  the  Father,"  is  "  the  very  and  eternal  God, 
and  of  one  substance  with  the  Father";  (2)  that  this,  the 
Second  Person  in  the  adorable  Trinity,  God  from  all  eternity, 
was,  in  the  words  of  the  Creed  commonly  called  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  "  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  "  born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  "  ;  in  the  words  of  the  Creed  commonly  called  the  Nicene 
Creed,  that  He  "came  down  from  heaven,  and  was  incarnate  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  was  made  man";  in  the 
words  of  the  Te  Dcum,  that  He  did  "  humble  "  Himself  "  to  be 
born  of  a  Virgin";  in  the  words  of  the  Collect  for  Christmas- 
day,  that  He  "was  born  of  a  pure  Virgin";  in  the  words  of  the 
proper  Preface  for  Christmas-day,  in  the  Order  for  the  Holy 
Communion,  that  He  was,  "by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
made  very  man,  of  the  substance  of  the  Virgin  Mary  His  mother, 
and  that  without  spot  of  sin";  and,  in  the  words  of  the  second 
Article  of  Religion,  affirming  the  decrees  of  the  Councils  of 
Ephesus  and   Chalcedon,  that   He  "  took   Man's   nature   in  the 


PASTORAL     LETTER.  5 

womb  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  of  her  substance;  so  that  two  whole 
and  perfect  Natures,  that  is  to  say,  the  Godhead  and  Manhood, 
were  joined  together  in  one  Person,  never  to  be  divided,  whereof 
is  one  Christ,  very  God  and  very  Man." 

This  doctrine,  held  by  the  Church  from  the  earliest  ages  as 
revealed  and  taught  in  Holy  Scripture,  witnessed  to  and  defined 
against  all  attacks  of  error  by  the  four  great  general  Councils 
of  the  undivided  Church,  is  held  by  this  Church  as  the  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  Christianity.  It  has  been  well  said  that  "  this 
was  the  real  contribution  of  the  General  Councils  to  human  his- 
tory: the  more  and  more  explicit  reassertion  of  the  Incarna- 
tion as  a  mystery  indeed,  but  as  a  fact.  The  various  heresies 
which  attempted  to  make  the  Incarnation  more  intelligible,  in 
reality  explained  it  away  ;  while  Council  after  Council,  though 
freely  adopting  new  phraseology,  never  claimed  to  do  more  than 
give  explicit  expression  to  that  which  the  Church  from  the  be- 
ginning had  implicitly  believed.  Their  undoubted  purpose,  as 
viewed  by  themselves,  was  to  define  and  guard,  and  to  defi'ne 
only  in  order  to  guard,  what  they  conceived  to  be  the  essence  of 
Christianity."  It  is  never  to  be  forgotten  that  the  doctrinal 
state^ients  of  the  undivided  Church  are  in  no  sense  an  enlarge- 
ment of,  or  addition  to,  the  domain  of  the  Faith,  but  only  a 
defence  and  definition  of  the  same. 

This  is  in  strict  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. When  the  Apostle,  writing  to  the  Ephesians,  would  desig- 
nate the  final  authority  in  matters  of  the  Faith,  he  said,  "  Ye 
have  not  so  learned  Christ";  and  when  St.  John  wrote  to  the 
elect  lady  his  burning  appeal  for  stedfastness  in  the  faith,  he 
summed  it  up  in  these  words:  "  He  that  abideth  in  the  doctrine 
of  Christ,  he  hath  the  Father  and  the  Son."  It  is  not  enough  to 
learn  about  Christ;  it  is  not  enough  to  know  what  Christ  taught 
or  what  is  taught  about  Him;  it  is  Christ  that  is  to  be  learned;  it 
is  the  Christ  in  whom  we  are  to  abide;  Christ  as  revealed  in  Holy 


6  PASTORAL     LETTER. 

Scripture;  Christ  as  the  fact  of  experience;  Christ  as  the  hinge 
of  human  history;  Christ  as  the  central  and  cardinal  point  of 
the  Creed,  which  must  be  read  backward  and  forward  from  Him: 
backward  to  reveal  "  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of 
heaven  and  earth,"  and  forward  to  teach  us  and  to  give  us  "  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  the  Communion  of 
Saints,  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins,  the  Resurrection  of  the  Body, 
and  the  Life  everlasting." 

Unless  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  firmly  held  to  be  God's  own 
true  and  proper  Son,  equal  to  the  Father  as  touching  His  God- 
head, and  to  be  also  the  true  Son  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  by 
miraculous  conception  and  birth,  taking  our  very  manhood  of 
her  substance,  we  sinners  have  no  true  and  adequate  Mediator ; 
our  nature  has  no  restored  union  with  God;  we  have  no  sacrifice 
for  our  sins  in  full  atonement  and  propitiation,  holy  and  accept- 
able to  God;  for  our  moral  weakness  and  incapacity  there  is  no 
fountain  of  cleansing,  renewal,  and  re-creation  after  the  measure 
ai"rd  pattern  of  a  perfect  manhood.  The  assertion  of  the  Catholic 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  —  the  one  indivisible  Personality  of 
the  Son  of  God  Incarnate,  the  Word  made  flesh  and  dwelling 
among  us  —  is  the  antidote  of  the  false  teaching  of  ou^  day, 
which  is  simply  the  revival  of  the  old  heresy  of  the  self- 
perfectibility  of  man.  For  the  miraculous  Virgin-birth,  while  it 
is  alone  befitting  to  God,  in  assuming  our  nature  into  personal 
union  with  Himself,  marks  off  and  separates  the  whole  of  our 
humanity  as  tainted  by  that  very  corruption  of  original  sin, 
which  had  no  place  in  human  nature  as  that  nature  was  assumed 
by  our  Blessed  Lord  in  His  Incarnation. 

We  are  moved  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  com- 
mitted to  our  charge,  and  of  the  teachers  commissioned  by  our 
authority  to  teach  them,  that  these  plain  statements  of  Holy 
Scripture  and  of  the  authoritative  Formularies  of  the  Church  re- 


PASTORAL     LETTER,  7 

quire  a  plain  and  full  acceptance  of  the  facts  that  the  human 
conception  and  birth  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  accomplished 
by  the  miraculous  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  the 
Humanity  in  His  one  Person  is  wholly  derived  from  the  sub- 
stance of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  His  mother.  Only  so  could 
He  be  the  "Seed  of  the  woman"  that  was  to  bruise  the  ser- 
pent's head;  only  so  could  He  fulfil  the  prophecies,  "A  woman 
shall  compass  a  man,"  and  "Behold,  a  virgin  shall  conceive,  and 
bear  a  son";  only  so  can  the  angelic  annunciation  be  under- 
stood, "  The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  the  power 
of  the  Highest  shall  overshadow  thee;  therefore  also  that  holy 
thing  which  shall  be  born  of  thee  shall  be  called  the  Son  of 
God";  only  thus  can  we  accept  the  statement  of  St.  Matthew, 
"  She  was  found  with  child  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  the  angel's 
assertion,  recorded  by  the  Evangelist,  "That  which  is  conceived 
in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost";  only  so  can  we  grasp  as  it  should 
be  grasped  the  revelation  in  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John, 
"  The  Word  was  God;  and  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt 
among  us,  full  of  grace  and  truth." 

This  true  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  is  not  only  the  cardi- 
nal and  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith,  but  it  in- 
cludes and  involves  all  of  our  Lord's  redemptive  work:  His  one 
Sacrifice  for  all  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  both  original  and 
actual;  His  resurrection  from  the  dead  ;  His  Ascension  into 
Heaven;  His  Intercession;  and  the  glory  of  His  eternal  King- 
dom. When  the  grace  of  God  is  poured  into  our  hearts  to  know 
the  Incarnation  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  it  leads  us,  by  His 
Cross  and  Passion,  to  the  glory  of  His  resurrection. 

Of  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Church 
teaches,  in  the  Creeds  commonly  called  the  Apostles'  and  Nicene 
Creeds,  that  "  the  third  day  He  rose  again  from  the  dead  ac- 
cording to  the  Scriptures  ";  and  in  the  fourth  Article  of  Religion 


8  PASTORAL     LETTER. 

that  He  "did  truly  rise  again  from  death,  and  took  again  His 
body,  with  flesh,  bones,  and  all  things  appertaining  to  the  per- 
fection of  man's  nature."  The  teaching  of  the  New  Testament 
gathers  the  whole  fact  and  force  of  the  apostolic  evidence  about 
this  truth.  The  Apostles  were  ordained  to  be  "  witnesses  of  the 
Resurrection."  By  every  test  of  enmity  overcome,  of  unbelief 
converted,  and  of  love  and  longing  satisfied  and  convinced, 
Christ  moves  through  the  New  Testament  Scriptures,  "the  first- 
begotten  of  the  dead,"  His  voice.  His  wounds,  His  words,  and 
His  familiar  ways  all  testifying  to  His  identity:  "Behold  My 
hands  and  My  feet,  that  it  is  I  Myself;  handle  Me  and  see;  for 
a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  Me  have  ";  "  I  deliv- 
ered unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  I  also  received,  how  that 
Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures;  and  that 
He  was  buried,  and  that  He  rose  again  the  third  day  according 
to  the  Scriptures;  and  that  He  was  seen  of  Cephas,  then  of  the 
twelve;  after  that,  He  was  seen  of  above  five  hundred  brethren 
at  once,  of  whom  the  greater  part  remain  unto  this  present,  but 
some  are  fallen  asleep;  after  that.  He  was  seen  of  James,  then 
of  all  the  Apostles;  and  last  of  all  He  was  seen  of  me  also,  as  of 
one  born  out  of  due  time." 

This  Church  nowhere  teaches,  and  does  not  tolerate  the 
teaching,  that  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was 
a  so-called  spiritual  resurrection,  which  took  place  when  the 
vital  union  of  His  mortal  body  and  His  human  soul  was 
dissolved  by  death,  and  that  the  fleshly  tabernacle  saw  cor- 
ruption in  the  grave  and  was  turned  to  dust.  This  would  be 
to  make  the  Resurrection  take  place  from  the  Cross  and  not 
from  the  sepulchre.  This  would  make  void  the  purport  and 
the  power  of  the  great  argument  of  the  Apostle  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  as  to  the  eternal  Priesthood  of  the  risen  and 
ascended  Lord,  Who  "  ever  liveth   to  make  intercession  for  us," 


PASTORAL     LETTER.  9 

Who  "by  His  own  blood  entered  in  once  into  the  holy  place, 
having  obtained  eternal  redemption  for  us,"  and  by  the  power 
of  His  prevailing  intercession  has  given  us  "  boldness  to  enter 
into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  a  new  and  living  way, 
which  He  hath  consecrated  for  us,  through  the  veil,  that  is  to 
say,  His  flesh";  it  would  mar  the  Human  Nature  of  Christ,  and 
tend  to  the  dividing  of  His  one  Person,  or  to  the  commingling 
of  His  two  Natures;  it  would  blot  out  the  vision  vouchsafed  to 
the  Apostle  and  Evangelist  St.  John,  of  the  "  Lamb  as  it  had 
been  slain,"  and  it  would  silence  the  unceasing  song  of  the  re- 
deemed: "Thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by 
Thy  blood  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people,  and 
nation." 

We  have  not  undertaken  to  discuss  these  great  doctrinal 
questions  in  detail;  nor  are  we  delivering  our  private  and  per- 
sonal opinion  on  these  vital  subjects.  We  are  speaking,  not  as 
truth-seekers,  but  as  truth-receivers,  "ambassadors  in  bonds"; 
even'as  St.  Paul  says,  "  That  which  we  also  received  deliver  we 
unto  you."  Our  sole  inquiry  is:  What  does  this  Church  teach? 
What  is  the  declaration  of  God's  Holy  W^ord  ? 

And  here  we  rest;  for  the  Priest's  vow  is  to  minister  the 
Doctrine,  as  well  as  the  Sacraments  and  the  Discipline  of  Christ, 
"  as  this  Church  hath  received  the  same,"  and  because  she  hath 
received  it  "  according  to  the  commandments  of  God."  And  the 
true  lover  of  God,  the  Theophilus,  who  would  "  know  the  cer- 
tainty of  those  things"  wherein  he  is  instructed,  who  would 
have  "a  declaration  of  those  things  which  are  most  surely  be- 
lieved among  us,"  must  receive  them  as  they  "  delivered  them 
unto  us  which  were  eyewitnesses  and  ministers  of  the  Word." 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  all  —  Bishops,  Priests,  Dea- 
cons, and  Laymen  —  that  the  facts  and  truths  which  lie  at  the 
basis  of  the  relicfion   of  Christ   are   eternal   facts  and  eternal 


lO  PASTORAL     LETTER. 

truths,  Stamped  with  the  assurance  which  Divine  infallibility 
ogives.  A  Revelation,  the  conditions  of  which  should  be  pliable 
to  the  caprices  of  speculative  thought,  would  be  thereby  voided 
of  all  that  makes  revelation  final  and  sure.  A  Creed  whose 
statements  could  be  changed  to  accord  with  the  shifting  cur- 
rents of  opinion  or  sentiment,  or  with  the  trend  of  thought  in 
each  succeeding  generation,  would  cease  to  command  and  guide 
the  loyalty  of  the  people,  and  would  not  be  worthy  of  the  respect 
of  mankind.  The  Creeds  of  the  Catholic  Church  do  not  repre- 
sent the  contemporaneous  thought  of  any  age;  they  declare 
eternal  truths,  telling  what  God  has  taught  man  and  done  for 
man,  rather  than  what  man  has  thought  out  for  himself  about 
God.  They  are  voices  from  above,  from  Him  "  with  Whom  is 
no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of  turning,"  and,  as  such,  are 
entitled  to  our  implicit  faith.  Grave  peril  to  souls  lies  in  the 
acceptance  of  the  letter  of  the  Creeds  in  any  other  than  the 
plain  and  definitely  historical  sense  in  which  they  have  been 
mterpreted  by  the  consentient  voice  of  the  Church  in  all  ages. 
Fixedness  of  interpretation  is  of  the  essence  of  the  Creeds, 
whether  we  view  them  as  statements  of  facts,  or  as  dogmatic 
truths  founded  upon  and  deduced  from  these  facts  and  once  for 
all  determined  by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the 
mind  of  the  Church.  It  were  derogatory  to  the  same  Blessed 
Spirit  to  suggest  that  any  other  than  the  original  sense  of  the 
Creeds  may  be  lawfully  held  and  taught.  It  becomes  us,  more- 
over, to  consider  that  Christianity  reconstructed  as  to  its  Faith 
must  logically  admit  a  reconstruction  of  the  ethics,  the  spiritual 
life,  the  worship,  the  ministerial  and  sacramental  agencies,  and 
the  good  works  which  have  ever  been  the  benign  products  of 
rhe  ancient  truths.  Such  results  we  see  in  unhappy  abundance 
all  around  us;  and  they  do  not  encourage  us  to  think  that  it  is 
possible  to  improve  the  Christianity  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 


PASTORAL     LETTER.  II 

There  is  no  Christ  save  the  Christ  of  the  CathoHc  Faith; 
and  it  is  the  blessing  of  this  Christ,  "  the  same  yesterday,  and 
to-day,  and  for  ever,"  upon  this  Faith  "  once  for  all  delivered  to 
the  Saints,"  which  assures  to  the  Church  and  the  world  all  that 
ennobles,  beautifies,  and  saves  man. 

II.     The  Inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

There  is  a  manifest  analogy  between  the  embodiment  of 
the  revealed  Word  of  God  in  the  terms  of  human  thought  and 
the  tabernacling  of  the  Personal  Word  of  God  in  our  flesh. 
Yet,  at  the  threshold  of  our  consideration  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, we  are  constrained  to  observe  this  plain  and  evident  dis- 
tinction: that  while  the  Church,  in  her  Creeds  and  Standards, 
has  clearly  and  precisely  defined  not  only  the  fact,  but  the 
method,  of  the  Incarnation  of  Christ,  she  has  confined  herself  to 
a  positive  assertion  of  the  fact  of  the  inspiration  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, without  any  definition  of  its  7node,  or  the  exposition  of  any 
theory  concerning  it.  Nevertheless,  the  declaration  of  the  fact 
of  Inspiration  is  unequivocal.  The. Creed  expressly  declares 
that  "the  Holy  Ghost  spake  by  the  Prophets";  the  sixth  x\rticle 
of  Religion  teaches  that  "  Holy  Scripture  containeth  all  things 
necessary  to  salvation";  the  Declaration  for  Orders  signed  by 
every  authorized  teacher  of  the  Church  commands  him  to  teach 
that  "the  Holy  Scriptures  are  the  Word  of  God";  and  the  ordi- 
nation vows  solemnly  taken,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  His 
Church,  by  every  Priest  and  Bishop,  bind  them  to  the  state- 
ment that  the  same  Scriptures  "  contain  all  Doctrine  required 
as  necessary  for  eternal  salvation  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ." 

Certain  points  must  be  first  fixed  in  the  consciousness  of  all 
reverent  students  of  God's  Holy  Word.  Concerning  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  elder  Covenant,  our  Lord  authenticated  the  teach- 
ing of  the  ancient  Church,  to  which  "  were  committed  the  ora- 


12  PASTORAL     LETTER. 

cles  of  God,"  by  His  public  and  official  use  of  the  Canon  of  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures,  as  we  know  it  to  have  been  read  in 
the  Synagogue  worship  of  the  Jews  of  His  time.  Nor  may  we 
forget  that  He  Himself,  after  His  Resurrection^  declared  that 
these  Scriptures  testified  of  Him,  specifying  them  in  detail  to  the 
two  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  when,  "beginning  at  Moses 
and  all  the  Prophets,  He  expounded  unto  them  in  all  the  Scrip- 
tures the  things  concerning  Himself,"  and  more  fully  still,  when 
standing  with  the  assembled  Apostles  He  said,  "  These  are  the 
words  which  I  spake  unto  you  while  1  was  yet  with  you,  that  all 
things  must  be  fulfilled  which  are  written  in  the  Law  of  Moses, 
and  in  the  Prophets,  and  in  the  Psalms,  concerning  Me." 

The  Scriptures  of  the  New  Covenant  contain  equally  strong 
and  clear  statements  of  the  Inspiration  of  the  whole  Canon;  as 
when  St.  Paul  says,  "Whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime 
were  written  for  our  learning";  and  St.  Peter,  "Holy  men  of 
God  spake  as  they  were  moved  [borne  on]  by  the  Holy  Ghost "; 
and  again  St.  Paul,  with  direct  reference  to  the  Scriptures  of 
the  New  Covenant,  declares  in  the  first  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians, "  Which  things  we  speak,  not  in  the  words  which  man's 
wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth,  comparing 
[combining]  spiritual  things  with  spiritual."  This  is  but  the 
realization  of  our  Lord's  promise,  from  which  all  examination  of 
the  meaning  of  the  peculiar  and  unique  Inspiration  of  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  ought  to  begin.  It 
is  the  men  who  are  inspired,  and  not  primarily  the  book;  and  it 
was  to  the  men  that  our  Lord  gave  the  promise  and  assurance 
of  Inspiration,  when  He  said:  "The  Comforter,  which  is  the 
Holy  Ghost,  Whom  the  Father  will  send  in  My  Name,  He  shall 
teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all  things  to  your  remembrance, 
whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you";  "When  He,  the  Spirit  of 
truth,  is  come.  He  will  guide  you  into  all  truth";  "He  shall 


PASTORAL     LETTER.  I3 

glorify  Me,  for  He  shall  receive  of  Mine,  and  shall  show  it  unto 
you."  Thus  we  may  have  full  assurance  that  the  Faith  which 
was  taught  by  the  preaching,  has  been  preserved  in  the  writ- 
ings, of  men  to  whom,  "through  the  Holy  Ghost,"  Christ  gave 
commandment  that  they  should  "  teach  all  nations  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  "  He  had  commanded,  and  to  whom  the 
authority  committed  on  the  day  of  the  Ascension  was  confirmed 
and  quickened  into  active  exercise  by  the  power  given  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  when  "they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

Meanwhile,  it  has  not  been  left  to  modern  criticism  to  dis- 
cover that  God's  revelation  of  Himself  to  man  was  a  progres- 
sive revelation,  until  "  in  these  last  days  He  hath  spoken  unto 
us  by  His  Son,"  Who  is  "  the  brightness  of  His  glory  and  the 
express  image  of  His  Person  ";  so  that  the  Revelation  thus  made 
is  the  final  revelation  of  God  to  Man.  The  writer  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  teaches  us  that  "  God  spake  unto  the  fathers  in 
many  portions,"  never  at  any  one  time  communicating  to  them 
the  whole  truth,  but  revealing  it  in  parts,  as  they  were  able  to 
bear  it.  The  same  authority  declares  that  "  God  spake  to  the 
fathers  in  many  fashions,"  sometimes  in  dreams  and  visions  of 
the  night,  while  at  other  times  the  Word  of  God  came  to  the 
Prophet  with  such  distinctness  that  he  could  preface  his  mes- 
sage with  the  sacramental  words,  "Thus  saith  the  Lord";  and 
while  the  Catholic  symbol  of  the  faith  declares  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  "  spake  through  the  Prophets,"  the  writer  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  says  that  "  God  spake  unto  the  fathers  in  the 
Prophets." 

Hence,  the  minute  and  reverent  study  of  the  Divine  Word 
must  always  be  necessary,  and  will  always  be  profitable.  The 
time  will  never  come  when  men  will  not  be  obliged  to  combine 
the  separate  portions  of  (lod's  Word,  to  study  the  fashions  \\\ 


14  PASTt)RAL     LETTER. 

which  they  were  given,  and  to  consider  the  operation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  both  in  and  through  the  sacred  writers.  And  the 
time  will  never  come  when  the  honest  student  of  God's  Word 
will  not  require  and  will  not  welcome  every  critical  appliance 
which  the  Providence  of  God  may  furnish,  to  cast  a  new  light 
upon  the  sacred  page. 

It  would  be  faithless  to  think  that  the  Christian  religion  has 
anything  to  fear  from  the  critical  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
"The  Church  of  the  present  ^nd  of  the  coming  day  is  bringing 
her  sheaves  home  with  her  from  the  once  faithlessly  dreaded 
harvests  of  criticism."  We  devoutly  thank  Ciod  for  the  light 
and  truth  which  have  come  to  us,  through  the  earnest  labors  of 
devout  critics  of  the  sacred  text.  What  we  deprecate  and  re- 
buke is  the  irreverent  rashness  and  unscientific  method  of  many 
professed  critics,  and  the  presumptuous  superciliousness  with 
which  they  vaunt  erroneous  theories  of  the  day  as  established 
results  of  criticism.  From  this  fault  professedly  Christian  critics 
are  unfortunately  not  always  exempt;  and  by  Christian  critics  we 
mean  those  who,  both  by  theory  and  practice,  recognize  the  In- 
spiration of  God  as  the  controlling  element  of  Holy  Scripture. 

The  same  Spirit  Who  "  in  time  past  spake  to  the  fathers  by 
the  Prophets  "  still  speaks  to  us  in  the  sacred  page.  He  whO' 
heeds  what  God  has  thus  revealed  will  be  made  "  wise  unto  sal- 
vation." To  him  who  heeds  it  not,  though  he  be  the  greatest 
of  all  critics,  the  Scripture  is  a  sealed  book.  The  true  correct- 
ive of  the  unrest  of  our  day  will  be  found  in  the  devout  use  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  If  any  man  will  search  them  as  our  Lord 
commanded,  they  will  testify  of  Him.  If  any  man  will  study 
them  "  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction 
m  righteousness,"  he  will  not  be  disappointed;  whatever  may  be 
the  value  of  critical  study,  and  however  thankful  we  may  be  for 
the  fact  that  no  discovery  of  modern  research,  positively  ascer- 


PASTORAL     LETTER.  15. 

tained,  is  of  a  character  to  unsettle  a  Christian's  faith  in  any 
particular,  we  must  remember  that  the  chief  duty  of  every 
student,  and  especially  of  every  teacher,  is  to  learn  what  the 
Scripture  says  and  what  it  means,  so  that  he  may  be  able  faith- 
fully to  open  the  same  Scripture  to  the  help  and  healing  of  sinful 
man.  Any  instruction  or  any  study  which  makes  any  part  of  the 
Bible  less  authoritative  than  it  really  is,  which  weakens  faith  in  its 
Inspiration,  which  tends  to  eliminate  Christ  from  the  utterances 
of  the  Prophets,  or  which  leads  a  man  to  think  of  miracles  with 
a  half-suppressed  skepticism,  is  a  pernicious  instruction  and  a 
pernicious  study.  A  great  danger  may  beset  the  flock  of  Christ, 
not  merely  from  false  teaching,  but  through  injudicious  and  ill- 
timed  teaching,  the  effect  of  which  is  not  to  settle  and  confirm, 
but  to  undermine  and  weaken  faith.  This  danger  exists,  and, 
unless  it  shall  be  conscientiously  avoided  by  every  teacher  of 
the  Church,  the  coming  generations  may  live  to  see  "  a  famine 
in  the  land,  not  a  famine  of  bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  of 
hearing  the  words  of  the  Lord." 

The  Inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  is  a  postulate  of  faith, 
not  a  corollary  of  criticism.  It  cannot  lawfully  be  questioned 
by  any  Christian  man,  and  least  of  all  by  men  who  have  sealed 
their  conviction  of  the  certainty  of  the  faith  with  the  solemn 
vows  of  Ordination.  Outside  of  the  domain  of  faith,  there  may 
be  undetermined  questions  touching  matters  which,  to  some 
minds,  may  seem  to  be  almost  essential  to  the  integrity  of  the 
Christian  scheme,  but  which  cannot  be  necessary  to  salvation. 
In  this  border-land,  thinking  minds  will  appreciate  and  rever- 
ently and  conscientiously  use  the  freedom  which  is  accorded  to 
them;  but  they  will  not  carry  their  liberty  over  into  the  realm 
of  adjudicated  truth.  Their  obligations  to  God,  as  men  and  as 
priests,  bind  them  in  a  holy  and  blessed  servitude  to  the  truth; 
and  a  consciousness  of  their  own  honest  loyalty  is  essential  tO' 
their  self-respect. 


1 6  PASTORAL     LETTER. 

Under  the  instruction  of  their  Divine  Master,  the  first  am- 
bassadors of  Christ  knew  how  fruitless  even  a  high  degree  of 
evangeUc  activity  must  be  without  unflinching  loyalty  to  a  body 
of  Doctrine  once  for  all  delivered  and  received.  In  the  ages  all 
along,  since  the  first  Council  was  held  in  Jerusalem,  the  safety 
and  honor  of  the  Church  have  been  endangered  as  much  by  the 
inroads  of  disbelief  in  revelation,  and  by  lax  constructions  of 
creeds  and  oaths  of  allegiance,  as  by  the  idolatry  of  the  East,  or 
the  barbarism  of  the  West. 

Not  less  plain  is  this  condition,  and  not  less  sharp  is  the 
test  of  obedience,  in  this  land  and  at  this  time,  in  the  matter 
of  the  Church's  formularies  of  worship.  Seductions  to  lawless- 
ness abounding  in  a  civilization  showy  rather  than  strong,  in 
communities  of  eager  enterprise,  intellectual  pride,  social  agita- 
tion, and  vast  material  opportunities,  lay  upon  the  Church  a 
solemn  obligation  to  abide  stedfastly  in  the  unchanging  prin- 
ciples of  her  commission  and  her  confessions,  and  in  the  dignity 
and  simplicity  of  her  acknowledged  offices  and  standards; 
not  forgetting  that  spiritual  life  must  decay,  not  only  when 
pledges  are  emptied  of  their  meaning,  but  when  formularies 
are  maimed  of  their  integrity.  No  specious  plea  of  progress, 
liberty,  independence,  or  comprehension  can  weaken  in  the 
least  the  constraining  obligation  of  a  covenant  of  conformity. 
A  heresy  which  would  seek  at  the  Altar  protection  from  the 
penalty  of  a  violated  vow  forfeits  the  respect  and  tenderness 
due  to  honest  doubt.  We  therefore  earnestly  entreat  you,  dear 
Brethren  of  the  Clergy,  that  you  "  stand  fast  in  the  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  hath  made  you  free,"  that  you  "  declare  the 
whole  counsel  of  God,"  as  this  Church  hath  received  the  same, 
that  you  exercise  discipline  without  fear,  "  not  handling  the 
Word  of  God  deceitfully,"  "holding  the  mystery  of  the  faith  in  a 
pure  conscience,"  and  "  by  manifestation  of  the  truth  commend- 
ing yourselves   to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God." 


PASTORAL    LETTER.  17 

So  exhorting  you,  dearly  beloved  in  the  Lord,  and  beseech- 
ing the  Father  of  mercies  to  "  stablish,  strengthen,  and  settle  " 
you  and  the  flocks  intrusted  to  our  care,  we  "  commend  you  to 
God,  and  to  the  Word  of  His  grace,  which  is  able  to  build  you 
up,  and  to  give  you  an  inheritance  among  all  them  which  are 
sanctified." 


PHOTOMOUNT 
PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Manu/aclurtd  bu 

SAYLORD  BROS.  In*. 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Stockton,  Calif. 


..«<r"    a»*«^ 


